A member of an international syndicate was arrested with counterfeit currency of Rs 1 lakh face value in Muzaffarpur today, officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.
Ramchandra Hazra, a resident of Ratnamala village under Majhaulia police station in West Champaran district, was arrested by DRI sleuths from a bus at Chakia toll gate on National Nighway 28.
During inquisition, Hazra confessed that he had smuggled the counterfeit currency from Bangladesh via the porous border at Kalia Chak in West Bengal.
"We had intelligence inputs about Hazra's movement. He boarded Farkka Express from West Bengal and reached Patna. With the wad of fake notes in denomination of Rs 1000, hidden in his clothes. He then boarded a bus on his way to Bettiah when we intercepted him," said a DRI official.
"The arrested person is a member of an international syndicate operating between Bangladesh, India and Nepal with the help of ISI of Pakistan. He has confessed that he fetched counterfeit currency consignments from Bangladesh a few times earlier also," the official said.
The DRI will produce him before the Economic Offences Court at Muzaffarpur, and he will be booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The central government agency had arrested 12 persons in Bihar and recovered fake currency notes of Rs 30.7 lakh face value in the financial year 2013-14.
